24-Megapixel on iPhone 15 Camera

Introduction

The iPhone 15 is the first iPhone series with all main cameras at 48 megapixels.

  • Additionally, a new super-high-resolution 24-megapixel default HEIF image is introduced.



Pixel Binning

While many YouTuber reviewers have claimed that the 48-megapixel sensor is a significant upgrade from the 12-megapixel sensors on previous iPhone models, the qual-pixel sensor actually combines every 4 pixels into 1 large quadpixel to improve light gathering ability.

  • In effect, the iPhone 15 main camera produces a 12-megapixel photo with 2 µm quad-pixels (compared to 1.9 µm pixels on the iPhone 14 main camera).

iPhone 15 Main Camera

NOTE: iPhone 15 Pro features a larger main camera sensor, producing 2.44 µm quad-pixels.



Computational Photography

Using Apple’s Photonic Engine technology, the camera captures multiple versions of a scene that are optimized for different aspects, such as light capture, noise removal, colour fidelity, subject awareness and so on. It then compresses those images into a single layer.

The iPhone 15 series adds another computational step by combining the optimized result with a 48-megapixel image to add detail, resulting in the default 24-megapixel image.

  • Theoretically, a 24-megapixel image allows for more cropping and reveals more details when zoomed.



Apple Suggests Using the Default 24 MP Camera

John McCormack, Vice President of Camera Software Engineering at Apple, advocates for the use of the default 24-megapixel mode due to its higher dynamic range compared to its 48-megapixel mode.

  • Additionally, the default 24-megapixel mode is less demanding on storage space than 48-megapixel.
However, a 12-megapixel resolution is generally sufficient to deliver crisp images on most displays, such as phones, computers and televisions.
  • Higher megapixels can translate to larger files, potentially necessitating the purchase of a larger-storage iPhone or subscription to cloud storage plans.



Summary

Despite the ongoing debate surrounding false advertising claims, the iPhone 15 is likely to be an improvement over its predecessor, but not as significant as some YouTube reviewers have hyped.

  • For now, it will be interesting to see how the optimized 24-megapixel image perform in real-world use.



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